Featured Reviews

Villa Maria ‘Seddon’ Marlborough Pinot Noir 2013

03 January,2019

When I saw George Fistonich and his Villa Maria winemaking
team visiting Martinborough in the late 1980s, I had an inkling that Pinot Noir
was going to be the company’s next focus, having successfully worked with the
Bordeaux red varietals in Hawke’s Bay.
With the 1990 vintage, Villa Maria released its first ‘Reserve’ Pinot
Noir, from Marlborough fruit, and they hit the ground running, the wine winning
a number of major awards. Villa Maria’s
progress with Pinot Noir has continued unabated, and there are now a number of
single vineyard wines, representing different sub-regions of Marlborough and
expressing their terroirs. The ‘Seddon’
vineyard is on the sheltered southern bank of the Awatere River, over two
terraces, and is regarded as a warm site.
The ‘Southern Clays’ vineyard has fruit from the ‘Rutherford’ vineyard
in the clay-influenced Southern Valleys.
‘The Attorney’ is an organic vineyard in the Southern Valleys, a
north-facing block that regularly produces small berries with thick skins. And the ‘Taylors Pass’ vineyard is situated
on the north bank of the Awatere River with silty loam soils over gravels. Here, I review the 2013 Villa Maria ‘Single
Vineyard – Seddon’ Pinot Noir, showing subtle benefits of bottle-age. www.villamaria.co.nz

FEATURED WINES IN THIS REVIEW

Villa Maria ‘Single Vineyard – Seddon’ Marlborough Pinot Noir 2013

Pinot Noir from New Zealand – Marlborough

19-/20

Moderately dark ruby-red colour with garnet hues, lighter on
the edge. The bouquet is elegantly and
finely expressed with a taut core of dark-red cherry and berry fruit along with
nutty oak and hints of spice, unfolding a little liquorice, and some savoury,
secondary dried herb and earthy suggestions.
Medium-full bodied, the palate has a rich and sweet core of ripe,
dark-red cherry and berry fruit with soft blackberry notes melded with a little
savoury secondary dried herb and earthy complexities, unfolding a little spicy,
nutty oak. The fruit sweetness blossoms
and the palate is supported by fine-grained, flowery tannin extraction and fine
textural grip, with a thread of fresh lacy acidity providing energy and
tension. The sweet fruit flavours carry
to a long, lingering finish. A little
shy on bouquet, this is a sweetly rich dark-red and black-fruited Pinot Noir
with emerging secondary complexities on a very fine-textured palate. Match with wild duck and pork dishes over the
next 5 years. Hand-picked Pinot Noir fruit,
a mix of clones, from the ‘Seddon’ vineyard, destemmed and fermented, partially
with indigenous yeasts to 13.5% alc., the wine aged 14 months in 30% new French
oak barriques. 19.0-/20 Dec 2018
RRP $54.99